SFZF2026 Guest of Honor

V. Vale
Guest of Honor

Thinking Captions Zine Reading
Location: James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center - SF Main Library 3rd Floor
Date: Thursday, September 3rd — 6-7:30 pm

We are thrilled to announce V. Vale as our 2026 Guest of Honor.


While working at City Lights Bookstore and witnessing the beginnings of the nascent Punk Rock scene in San Francisco, Vale was motivated to document the movement in a way he felt the “Hippie” scene had not been. In 1977 Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti funded V. Vale's Search & Destroy punk rock tabloid (which morphed into the RE/Search series in 1980). Goal: to document and catalyze underground and taboo-breaking artists and ideas. Vale continues dispersing countercultural ideas through publications, media, and personal appearances. He often sets up and vends his 48-year publishing output around town at events and music shows.

Invited Guests

JOE DONOHOE

JOE DONOHOE

is a nurse and former taxi driver/DJ/journalist who has lived in San Francisco for over thirty years. His zine Speciousspecies has been in existence since 2003. Covering counter cultural history, from a punk/post punk perspective and edge arts, each issue revolves around themes: Religion and War; Work and Crime; Inner and Outer Space; Sex and Death, Failed Revolutions. His nursing school/taxi memoir Get in the Cab [will be] available via IngramSpark and Amazon on Square Tire Press. He is a recipient of the 2012 Kathy Acker Award for Avant Garde publishing.

PENELOPE HOUSTON

PENELOPE HOUSTON

As a teenager, in 1977, Penelope moved from Seattle to attend the San Francisco Art Institute. Quickly her career in visual arts was side-tracked by the formation of the critically acclaimed proto-punk band, the Avengers. Since then she has performed over 1000 shows with the Avengers and her award-winning solo band throughout the USA and Europe. Venues include CBGB’s, The Whiskey a Go Go, Winterland Ballroom, as well as LA MOCA and the De Young Museum in SF. She has released thirteen albums on Warner Brothers and other independent labels with a musical career well-documented in publications from Newsweek to Slash. In 2025 she self-published her first chapbook "early days" and is working on a follow-up.

Her music and art websites:
http://penelope.net/
http://penelopehouston.com/

RUSS FORSTER

RUSS FORSTER

(AKA F.R. "Russ" Forster) has been editor/publisher for the wily 8-Track Mind Magazine since 1990.  Started on a kind of personal dare with the help of several other Chicago-Area 8-track tape/player enthusiasts, the magazine blew through 3 printings of its initial issue (cryptically numbered #69) and became a perfect example of a cult 1990s fanzine, popular enough to spawn a feature film (1995's So Wrong They're Right). Now on issue #106, the magazine comes out bi-annually (or so) and delves into far deeper cultural topics than the title would suggest.